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A Luverne High School junior has become the 12th student in school history to claim a state speech title.
Knute Oldre, son of Kyle and Sara Oldre, Luverne, placed first in Discussion at Friday’s State Speech Tournament in Lakeville.
Discussion is the category in which Luverne students have won nine out of the school’s 12 state individual titles.
Four other Luverne students competed with Oldre at the state meet. Two also earned medals for finishing the tournament in the top eight.
Junior Dylan Thorson placed third in Extemporaneous Speaking and junior Samantha Ykema finished third in Discussion. Friday’s event was Thorson’s fourth consecutive state appearance. It was the third time for Oldre and Ykema.
Senior Paul Witte III and freshman Shane Berning, both first-time participants, competed in Storytelling and Extemporaneous Speaking, respectively, without reaching the final round.
“It’s been a great season and we are so excited with the outcome,” said Caroline Thorson, who shares coaching responsibilities with Gavin Folkestad.
“We will be losing a great group of seniors but have a strong group of juniors who will take over the helm guiding our younger team that showed awesome potential this year.”
The last time a Luverne student won a state speech championship was in 2012 when Londyn Robinson earned the Discussion title. She also won the same category in 2010.
Discussion is one of 13 speech categories and involves a small group of participants tasked with solving a problem. This year’s problem topic through the Minnesota High School League was “Sports In America: Has Our Obsession Gone Too Far?”
Unlike other speech categories that are adversarial in nature, Discussion emphasizes consensus building to accomplish their goals.
Friday’s state appearance was Oldre’s third and best finish. He finished fifth last year and eighth in 2014.
All speech participants competed in three preliminary rounds with the top eight students competing in the finals.
In the finals, Oldre said he was assertive, stating all the information he wanted to discuss.
“That was the most fun round I had all season and in all of my career,” Oldre said. “I had a good time.”
He said having a friendly competitor and team member in Ykema helped during the speech season as well in the state final.
The two often discussed and researched Discussion topics together and would share information from completed rounds.
The same partnership occurred between a different member of the Oldre family and Luverne’s first state speech winner.
Victoria Roberts earned the school’s first Discussion title as a junior in 1983. She repeated as the winner in 1984.
Finishing second to Roberts in 1983 was Oldre’s dad, Kyle, then a high school senior.
“I think there is no question it’s an asset,” the elder Oldre said.
After Roberts earned consecutive Discussion titles, a Luverne student won the title in four out of the next five years.
Ann Tofteland earned the state Discussion title in 1985, Becky Opsata (1987 and 1988) and Andy Golla (1989.)
Rounding out Luverne’s past state titles were Beth Arends (1990) and Kevin Kessler (1993) both in Great Speeches and Shawn Strassburg (1989) in Storytelling.